Sensory AI can recognize sounds in your home

Wouldn't it be great if home devices like smart speakers can ping you if they hear anything unusual, such as the sound of breaking glass? A software company called Sensory has developed an AI that can identify the sounds it hears and take action if needed. It says the technology, called TrulySecure Sound ID, is like "Shazam for sounds in the home."

The always-listening AI can recognize a variety of environmental sounds, including dogs barking, home security or smoke alarms, low battery warnings, doorbells, knocking and glass breaking. It can then send you a warning and even a clip of what it hears. That way, you'll know if you should call authorities or if there's anything going on in your house that you should be aware of.

Sensory chief Todd Mozer explained:

"With so many voice­ controlled products entering our homes, we saw an excellent opportunity to enable the microphones in these devices to do more than just listen for wake words and recognize speech"

Sound ID is part of Sensory's AI suite for smart speakers and IoT devices that run completely on device. It doesn't send data to the cloud to prevent privacy and security concerns. In addition to Sound ID, Sensory has also launched a cloud-free voice control technology for Bluetooth speakers at CES 2019. That particular product will allow manufacturers to load their devices with voice control that uses proprietary wake words of their choosing. No need to rely on Alexa or Google Assistant, so we might see more voice-activated speakers with their own names in the future.